March
is Salsa's twin sister. She, along with her sister, is a Guardian of Agogo Forest. Information March is an introspective and kind young girl with a great love of nature. She often worries about Salsa's aggressive attitude and behavior but still admires her. Unlike her sister, March is soft-spoken and calm; she can truly get along with anyone. March is also very mature for her age, so she is able to understand difficult concepts with surprising ease. March is also quite scholarly and consults ancient texts whenever she has time. She is deeply concerned about the effects that the mining of Mt. Rock for mineral powder is having on the ecology of Agogo Forest. Fighting Style March, like her sister, fights using two large sharp rings (in her case, moon rings). However, she differs greatly in that she is even better at building combos than Salsa due to the extra swing she adds in her attacks. Between the twins, Salsa prefers less hits and raw power while March utilizes a more strategic game. Equipped with the Werewolf Choker, many gamers refer to her as the "combo queen" as she can easily build a chain of 32 Echoes with very little effort. March also adds in a bit of surprise with her equipment: she can use mid-weight armor similar to Beat, giving her some variety with defense unlike her sister Salsa, who relies on lighter gear. March's low HP and attack power may initially give the appearance of making her a subpar character, but her Special Attacks have some of the most useful abilities in the game. She can create long strings of hits with her light Super Nova and dark Midnight Cloud. One of her most valuable dark abilities is Aurora Curtain. While this move deals very little damage, it greatly reduces the damage from the next enemy attack on a target and is applied to those directly around her as well. What makes this move especially useful is that if an enemy uses an attack that deals damage to multiple characters, the buff will only break on the targeted character, meaning that the non-targeted character or characters will still take reduced or no damage until they are actually targeted by an attack. March has one special distinction among the entire cast: she is the only character who can inflict status ailments with two of her special moves, Full Moon Bind and New Moon Bind, effectively buying time for the party and weakening the enemy. By far the more useful of the two is Full Moon Bind, which can afflict Stop status, immobilizing the enemy for two seconds before it can act. New Moon Bind inflicts the less valuable Slow status, which reduces the enemy's speed as it moves across the field. Both of these moves also work on bosses, including the game's final boss, although they have a pretty strong chance of resisting them, meaning it may take several tries before she is actually able to get them to stick. She also has some distance game with Illumination and Eclipse Gaze, both of which are powerful line attacks. Despite her amazing combat potential, as already mentioned March has very low HP, the lowest amount of any character in the party at comparable levels. Her hit point value never climbs to impressive numbers and she gains very few of them upon level ups, so it is recommended to give her the Tyrant's Crown to increase her survivability. Alternatively, equip her with her Wheel of Will, found in the Noise Dunes of Fantasy. This weapon places her in Darkness Body status, allowing her to use Aurora Curtain every turn unless she ends up in the field of light generated by someone else's Shining Body status. Special Attacks Unlike the rest of the party's swapped specifications for the PS3 version, March's Special Attacks were simply renumbered to be learned five levels later from their previous milestones in the 360 version. This is one example of the challenge factor being increased for the PlayStation 3 release, as opponents in this version generally provide less EXP, resulting in slower leveling. Battle Quotes Start Battle *"Nice to meet you." *"Pleased to meet you." *"Is fighting the only way to settle this?" (Party is at low levels relative to opponent(s)) *"Oh dear, this is a problem." (Party is at low levels relative to opponent(s)) *"I must be brave!" (Party is at low levels relative to opponent(s)) *"Oh my, what a dilemma!" (Party is at low levels relative to opponent(s)) *"(gasps) "Oh no!" (ambushed) *"This is hard!" (critical HP) Battle End *"Excuse us!" *"That was fun!" *"You did well!" *"That was quite a challenge." *"I'm really glad I was able to help!" *"I'm surprised how strong you all are." Level Up *"Haha!" *"Very good!" *"That does it!" *"La-la-la-la!" *"I hope I'm being helpful!" *"Experience is what counts." *"All that hard work paid off!" *"I guess it's worth it in the end." * (singing) "Oh, I am going to become the falling rain!" * (singing) "Oh, I am going to become the shining moon!" Special Attacks Full-Moon Bind *"Let's try this!" *"This will work!" *"You shall be ruled by the power suspended above the blue sky!" Super Nova *"...Ready?" *"The bright light within me is a part of all things that shine!" Aurora Curtain *"...Ready?" *"The north is a place of oblivion, silence and uncertainty! It is the ultimate veil of darkness!" Eclipse Gaze *"...Ready?" *"Now you will learn the power of wisdom! Be silent!" Midnight Cloud *"Here I come!" *"Let's try this!" *"The mother of darkness shall entwine you with her tresses!" *"The father of darkness shall hide you beneath his mighty wings!" New-Moon Bind *"Before all creation is the date of chaos, darkness, and night!" *"I am the future in a veil of mist! Your fate will be revealed in the dim light!" Luna Stream *"I will show you my power!" *"In my hands, the moon becomes a mirror; its light becomes a piercing flame!" Illumination *"That's enough! Now it's my turn!" *"Now you will learn the power of light! Radiate!" *"Take this! Ha!" (during) Following Special Attacks *"Take care!" *"Sad souls!" *"How was that?" *"That went well!" Item Usage *"There!" Healed *"Thank you!" *"I'm all right!" *"This is hard!" (Resurrection) KOed *"Salsa...!" Retreat *"G'bye!" *"Well then, g'bye!" *"I'll have to excuse myself now..." Gallery March's Level-Up Pose.jpg|March doing a Level Up pose Eternal Sonata Promotional Wallpaper - Salsa and March.jpg|Xbox 360 promotional wallpaper with Salsa Etymology In music, March is a genre of music that often accompanies physical marching. This type of music generally has a strong, regularly rhythm and is often played by a military band known as a "marching band."Wikipedia entry on March (music) Behind the scenes *In the English-language adaptation of Eternal Sonata, March shares her voice actress with her sister Salsa. *March appears in the manga adaptation of Eternal Sonata, but her role is extremely minimal. In the manga, she is at her home with her sister Salsa and she provides the party with information and a place to rest, but the is not seen again, as the party does not return. The PlayStation 3 version of Eternal Sonata gives some new scenes and dialogue to March that flesh out her nature as a scholarly type who believes that problems cannot be solved only by fighting. *Several of March's battle quotes suggest that she is unaccustomed to and perhaps somewhat uncomfortable with combat, despite her great effectiveness. *In general, March is very well-mannered, but she does show some anger in Agogo Forest in the PlayStation 3 release of Eternal Sonata when Fugue insults the Agogo Queen Mother, telling him that he would be wise to listen to her sister. After Fugue is consumed, she then refers to him using the mean nickname that Salsa coined, "three-eyed freak". *Both the pointed ears and the fact that March states that the agogos have never approached her about helping a human before indicate that she and her sister are something other than human, though exactly what species they are is never specified. *When March is KOed, she shouts her sister Salsa's name, and when Salsa is KOed, she shouts March's name. Notes and references Category:Playable characters